ICO calls time at Swansea

 

Time stands still at the Guildhall, is this why FOI are delayed?

A result in 17 hours for the Information Commissioner's Office, who forced Swansea Council to disclose that they had made 202 Personal Data Breaches, which had affected more than 3,435 individuals in the period from May 2018 to December 2021 [1]. 

The full FOI request for the number of  "Personal data breaches since GDPR day" is publicly available on WhatDoTheyKnow.com.

In a strikingly unusual move, a case officer responded to an FOI complaint in nine days, compelling Swansea Council to respond: 

Some have questioned whether the new Information Commissioner, John Edwards, who took up his role on 4 January 2022, would uphold the 2000 Freedom of Information Act. There's a massive backlog of cases, in many instances not addressed for over a year.

Has John Edwards as new Commissioner brought with him a new broom for the New Year? 

Was Swansea Council's failure to respond according to the law - promptly and in any event no later than twenty working days - too blatant and egregious for even the ICO to overlook?

Does the intersection of GDPR and FOI risk shaming the ICO if had let it slide, grossly undermining any authority it needs to discharge the Commissioner's duties? Knowing how many mistakes have been made and how long it took for the Council to comply with its legal obligations to decide whether to notify (under 2018 DPA/GDPR) is a bread-and-butter metric that should be at the tips of a section head's fingers.

Does adding Annotations to WhatDoTheyKnow, publicly shaming public authorities,  trigger the PR department/ministry-of-spin to jump on the Freedom of Information team?

Has John Edwards simply done some comparative maths? Public authorities like billion-pound Swansea have budgets splurged on bulging PR departments and second-rate consultants' reports, whilst their FOI and data protection clean-up crews are woefully understaffed and in many situations not empowered to gather timely, nor (in some cases) truthful responses from their own colleagues. If the humble citizen is resilient enough to file and pursue a complaint at the ICO then Mr Edwards' teams will simply pick up the costs of enforcement - I've a pretty easy fix for that.

Command Post Bunker on Mumbles Hill
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Nigel Davies - geograph.org.uk/p/3064574

Swansea itself has monuments scattered around the city to mark the bravery of the air-defence units that sought to protect her citizens, throughout the Second World War and especially during the Three Nights' Blitz. As a young child I remember clambering through the Command Post Bunker up on Mumbles Hill. A friend's father would jam 2-5 of us into the back of his Mini to take us there, in the days before seatbelts! We'd run around, playing innocent hide and seek, then inevitably pretend to strafe and kill each other as we'd defend or attack a bunker, playing out being imaginary soldiers with sticks for Sten guns.

Mr Thomas would describe the huge anti-ship and anti-aircraft guns, the devastating noise and damage to homes they'd make during firing drills, and the intense searchlights that would scour the sky during a raid (Coastal Defence 299 Battery A on the rocks way below). We were perhaps too young and innocent to understand the trauma of living through it, the true horror of war. We dismissed the notion that the city centre was "new". We only saw the first part of Dylan Thomas's "ugly, lovely town", years before the tag of "Pretty Shitty City" was imprinted on celluloid. Come and see for yourself, when COVID restriction safely allow, it's a lovely place to walk to earn yourself a Joe's Ice Cream, and remember those who made sacrifices to protect their communities.

The impact of a personal data breach can be devastating to an individual, and their family. Thousands of families in the Swansea Blitz had their homes and private lives literally blown open, relationships and even "permanent" structures within their communities razed and rocked. Each of the 3,435 individuals affected by these 202 personal data breaches is a person. Many of those individuals won't even know it happened - if the clean-up crew has covered over a mistake *and* decides the breach wasn't notifiable. In some cases those breaches will have exposed people to physical, mental and financial harm or destroyed trusting relationships. It may started from a simple mistake, but can have very serious consequences. 

Swansea Council may not know, or even care, just how deeply these personal data breaches can cut. Many times some would love to train a 6 inch naval gun on an organisation. Standing on the hill and pretending with binoculars can be quite cathartic, or so I'm told, and won't get your personal data added to a watchlist 😉

Shining an intense search-light by asserting information rights is a formidable weapon in and of itself. The cascade of mistakes and misdirection that fell out from one simple mistake in this instance are breath-taking. The failures documented, laws broken and contradicting lies revealed are truly shocking.

"Upholding information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals" is the tag-line, for now, of the ICO. Let's hope that this rapid-intervention, keep ing short-accounts to prevent the FOI backlog from ever starting to grow, is maintained. The ICO needs to be more than flashy jackets, buzzwords and sandboxes. Citizen audit, driven by a desire to put right personal injustices, is a massively powerful tool that strengthens our society. The Freedom of Information Act is right at the heart of that. 

If you are wondering if *you* are part of the breaches, then ask for your own data from Swansea and check for free here - they might even fix some of the errors and social engineering on the page if they have a few more visitors (reported to ICO July 2020).

[1] Note strictly the FOI responded to was only for Personal Data Breaches since GDPR day, and therefore 199 breaches affecting 3,432 individuals, rather than 202 affecting more than 3,435.

Half-job Jo skips the ICO

Carmarthenshire County Council managed to land a puff piece in the South Wales Guardian, suggesting complaints were down in 2018-19 compared to a year earlier. Drill down a little and it seems complaints to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales had more than doubled (23->48) for the same period.

Complaints going "up a level" are quite exceptional. It takes a robust mindset to "exhaust" the Council's own complaint and review procedures before the PSOW will consider even accepting a case, let alone investigate. A Council officer is quoted as saying:

"The positive is that none of them were upheld."

Curiously, none of the five Decision Notices issued by the Information Commissioner's Office in the same period were referenced in the report. Four of which were upheld (in part or whole). How odd.

ICO Decision Notices tend to be only issued when a complainant specifically requests one - as the Information Commissioner is very busy and the backlog within her Office is typically 2-4 months to get a case first assigned. Investigations can easily stretch to well over a year, by which point many complainants have given up. However, the ICO is very clear that a Complaint should register long before they rule:

Links here for the "Compliments & Complaints Annual Report 2018/19", the ICO's "Action we've taken" in relation to Carmarthenshire County Council and the ICO's "Section 45 - Code Of Practice - request handling".

Image credits:
Business photo created by kjpargeter - www.freepik.com
Carmarthenshire County Hall cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Nigel Davies - geograph.org.uk/p/23208
Lovingly munged with the GIMP

The Parking Pirates of Llangrannog Bay

The BBC have today picked up on the dissent in picturesque Llangrannog. A Sussex company is siphoning funds directly out of this small Ceredigion community. Like buccaneers of yore, One Parking Solution seem to have little regard for the Law.

I had hoped to give POPLA due chance to finish their "independent appeal" process, and to commission a snazzy pirate-ship themed artwork, with BPA logos for portholes and a mast to hang One Parking Solution very own jolly-roger from, but it seems good-Councillor Gwyn James has caught the eye of the newsmen so I have to careen. Arr!

Let's pick out just three unlawful wheezes of the £70,000 helicopter owning Parking Pirates of Llangrannog Bay:

1)  No planning consent

Ceredigion County Council began enforcement action against One Parking Solution on the 21st August 2019, for failing to hold planning consent for their advertising signs at the site. This is a breach of s224 of 1990 Town & Country Planning Act. The Development Management Team Leader (Compliance)'s initial investigation did unearth an application in the system, but as of 28th August 2019:

"The application has not been through the validation stage to date. As soon as it is considered valid, then it will show on the web site."

Be sure to keep ye good eye to the spyglass here for Ceredigion's planning site, SA44 6SL is the postcode given.

If you'd like to read more about when/why one needs planning consent for outdoor advertisements, then Newport County Council's planning site has a helpful link to the Advertisement Control booklet - prepared for DfT & Welsh Ass for Wales.

This cutlass carries a bit of a sting, the £1,000 fine on pg27. Arr!

I'd be very surprised if it wasn't in the public interest of Ceredigion's local electorate to make sure that their Planning officers apply to a Magistrate, in short-order, rather than swinging the lead. Though some might think a good keel-hauling would be more expedient.

Arr!

2) Not paying Business rates

Much of our society rests on proper, lawful, behaviour. Taxes may not be welcome, but they fund the nurses that care. Taxes pay for the equipment and salaries of the firefighters who will literally risk their own lives to enter a burning building, vehicle or ship to rescue someone in distress. Taxes pay for police, teachers, judges, courts, the list goes on. And yet, One Parking Solution doesn't feel it needs to pay Business rates in Llangrannog.

Please, don't trust some randomo on the internet. Pick up the phone and ask Ceredigion County Council's  Revenue section:

"Is it against the law not to pay Business rates?"

I did :) You'll receive an emphatic answer, and then some qualifications about hereditaments and reliefs etc.

Gavin Chait has performed a great public service in using the WhatDoTheyKnow.com platform to ask  Councils, under the Freedom Of Information Act of 2000, about non-domestic/business rates up and down the country. Here are the Q2 listings for Ceredigion. If you trundle down through the listings something is odd, there is no mention of the car park operated by One Parking Solution.

Taking a look at the many complaints on TripAdvisor directed at Y Llong/The Ship you'll see that the car park has been sold off, which we can match to the entry for "land at the south side of, The Ship Inn" at the HM Land Registry. The picaroons at One Parking Solution have been so quick to want to seize their ill-gotten treasure, to bury in their bulging chests in Sussex, that they haven't even thought of tossing a few pieces to the Crown. One would have expected that the provost and quartermaster, in the guise of conveyancing solicitor and auditing accountant, ought to have spoken of this deception sooner - perhaps a case of no prey, no pay?

Ceredigion County Council's  Revenue section escalated this on 22nd August 2019 for joint enforcement with the Valuation Office Agency. The Rateable Value is now to be assessed according to the VOA 2017 practice note, using evidence of parking charge notices issued by ANPR as a minimum basis for determining in a 168 hour/week, backdated since the site was purchased.

Y Llong's sutler may look forward to a lowering of his own dues.

Arr!

3) Unauthorised usage of  ICO logos

Those souls brave enough to walk the plank of One Parking Solution's internal appeal process may have not expected to receive any quarter, their appeal was bound to be rejected. They may have felt further intimidated by the inclusion of the logo of the Information Commissioner's Office as the red flag was hoisted. What does the Canadian lady's office have to do with parking? Clearly One Parking Solution were seeking to give their sea-sick assessment an imprimatur of authority as they crimped more for loot.

Following a complaint last week, the ICO confirmed in writing this morning that this use was not sanctioned and

"have referred this to our legal team who will be contacting them shortly"

Arr!

Avast! 

As I run a shot across the bow, why is being lawful important (as a floppy haired buffoon found out just last week)? Well, this hempen halter is first weaved by association:

"4.3 Under the Code you must keep to all the requirements laid down by law. The Code reflects our understanding of the law at the date of publication. However, you are responsible for familiarising yourself with the law on any activities covered by the Code."

BPA AOS Code of Practice

One Parking Solution is obliged to follow the terms of the British Parking Association Approved Operator Code of Practice (current version 7 - January 2018). So any Parking Charge Notice issued to date is moot. Arr!

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The breach of KADOE contract with the DVLA goes much further. I'll outline the grounds for scuttling One Parking Solution in a few days.



(A tad of background; I was asked to help by a youngster who visited, put his pieces of silver into yon parking machine and the coinage fell through. The youngster tried repeatedly, and then attempted to use the technology - "downloading" the app as directed. Visitors familiar with graceful Llangrannog Bay will know that mobile signal is an aspiration, at best. Sick of the timeouts, the youngster thought "Scupper that", weighed anchor and departed, with crew. Llangrannog having attracted visitors saw them rebuffed, unlikely to return)

A Swashbuckle Salute to the landlubbers at A Pirate's Glossary of Terms, for expanding my vocabulary this lunch-break.

Plaid claim credit at Ammanford Town Council

There are tall-tales, and there are real whoppers. 'Plaid Cymru | Party of Blame' are really pushing out the boat with their electioneering for Ammanford Town Council, in the upcoming Myddynfych ward By-Election. 

If 'Plaid Cymru | Party of Blame' have to ask, then you probably don't know

"What has Plaid done?" candidate Rhodri Jones's pamphlet has the bare-faced cheek to ask. Before laying claim to some fabulous projects, way beyond the scope (and competence) of Ammanford Town Council:

• Roundabout - "complete"?! Diggers on the pavement this week, started in October 2017, overground works had their own 1st anniversary celebrations and dedicated prose; a Carmarthenshire County Council and Welsh Government project
• Ammanford AFC - Carmarthenshire County Council cash of £125K with no planning scrutiny for the new stand and no reference to ATC contribution
• Council Hwb - Carmarthenshire County Council toxic de-branding project
• Margaret St Junction - ATC have no recorded information about it (CCC again)
• Foundry Rd - someone else's money again
• Bandstand - another CCC endeavour that's dragged on, is blocking Asset Transfer with previous funds withdrawn
• Coaltown Coffee - promoted in the Senedd, not paying business rates in Foundry Rd (Datasets Empty Property Rates 020119.xls A62:G62)
• Dyffryn Rd - another County project, located over-the-border in Saron Ward (well-run Llandybie Community Councillors campaigning since before 2011)
• Lloyds Bank - the murky commercial County grant, with domestic units

Pictured (on the pamphlet) we have the great and the good of "County Councillor" (ATC replacement Mayor) Deian Harries and "Member of Parliament" Jonathan Edwards - remembering to give the County Councillor his full title, as bickered over in the more recent Minutes to be liberated from the recesses of the Town Hall.

Whilst claiming credit for things well outside their remit, let's give due
credit to the post-"Iscennen Plaid Slide" period.

Ammanford Town Council have recently been fined a further £250 by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales. This is the second fine imposed in a year, along with the declaration of maladministration, for the same complaint! The Ombudsman's report is highly critical, even in its final watered-down form. You can read it in full here - it should be displayed in the Notice Board along with the candidate notices (now they've changed the lock, after ex-office holders left with the keys & Mayoral chains).

To be clear about the fines, the Town's council-tax paying electorate carries the cost, not the fifteen elected councillors (or co-opted cronies, as applicable). Any Councillor with a clue would not have accepted the way things have been run. Those with a shred of integrity should have resigned.

The two-year battle to liberate legally required Minutes has resulted in  two Decision Notices finally being issued in recent weeks. FS50711667[1] & FS50755792 uphold ten complaints, documenting mayhem. The Information Commissioner noted taking the exceptional step of issuing an Information Notice (see FS50711667 S.28), compelling the Council to  respond last summer - which they continued to ignore.

Being stonewalled on the Minutes by ATC, curiosity led to revealing the
financial irregularities, missing VAT returns, lack of proper financial
controls, un-audited/not-published accounts and unearthed the Wales Audit
Office investigations.

£4,350 is the potential fine for a public body failing to register as a Data Controller (as any small business owner will attest). The ICO confirmed that it began enforcement action in July 2018 against Ammanford Town Council. Does the Council now hold sufficient reserves? Or will the precept that's just been doubled be doubled or trebled again?

Ammanford Town Council isn't even sure which set of Standing Orders is in
force, some Councillors think 2012, others 2013. The 2013 version just disclosed (again under the compulsion of the Freedom of Information Act) are England-specific, failing to take account of devolution nor the toothless legislation passed by the Notional Assembly in 2013 (in force since 2015). Empirical evidence, two fines by the PSOW, drives a coach and horses through Part 1: section 42 and the head-buried-in-the-sand maladministration orchestrated from the Mayor's Parlour. ATC even pay for membership of One Voice Wales; but take their Orders from the English National Association of Local Councils (Duh! There are clues in the names)!

In Ammanford 'Plaid Cymru | Party of Blame' has lauded holding the trifecta of political control of Town Council, AM and MP; clustered within 300m. What chance is there of reasonable scrutiny, or even dissent, with a Party whip? The mind boggles further when we give AM Adam Price full credit as new Leader of Plaid and remember that Plaid control the basket-case of Local Government that is Carmarthenshire County Council. Has poor Ammanford found the five magics?

Give me Town Councilry
Give me County Councilry
Give me Notional Assembly

Westmonstery, Party Leadery

Magic, if you please







However, let's give the 'English Labour Party in Wales' Amman Valley branch office fair recognition for running in cosy cahoots. The appalling malpractice of not preparing, ratifying nor publishing Minutes (in a timely manner) began under County Councillor Colin Evans (Lab) stint as Mayor. Fifteen elected councillors (or co-opted cronies, as applicable) facilitated this, overseeing a part-time Clerk who's hours amounted to little more than what many youngsters put in on a weekend shift. Joio.

I'm not eligible to vote in the Myddynfych ward by-election (nor sadly the Wernddu ward), despite my livelihood depending on the Town's provisions. If I could ask a few questions to candidates then these would lead the conversation:

1. How many Ammanford Town Council meetings have you attended in the last 3, 12 & 24 months?
2. Do you believe in transparent and accountable (community) governance?
3. Have you read the Standing Orders?
4. Have you heard of the 1972 Local Government Act, Local Government (Democracy)(Wales) Act 2013 or the Welsh Government's 2015 Statutory Guidance?
5. Do you think that party politics has any place in serving at a town and community council?

County Councillor Colin Evans objected to this democratic election (24 Jan 2019), on the grounds of cost. Ammanford Town Council's "political elite" (that has to be an oxymoron) wanting to divvy up the two wards one each for 'Plaid Cymru | Party of Blame' and the 'English Labour Party in Wales', to retain the balance through co-opting. 

Ammanford deserves better. If eligible to vote on Thursday then please vote to make sure it gets better.


[1] The Information Commissioner stated the wrong year in numerous places in the DN, and is legally unable to the correct her mistakes unless an Appeal is lodged and won through the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). They also classified the complaints as "Not Upheld" in the "Action we've taken" section of their website. Seeding the idea of a "How useless is..." future mini-series.

[Picture brought to you courtesy of Plaid Cymru, Edward J. Repka, Combat Records/Capitol Records, Section 30A and Schedule 2 (2A) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the GIMP & Vic. Sources here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Megadeth-RustInPeace.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plaid_Cymru_logo.svg]

Cultural Learnings for to make Ammanford great again

Colin's Got It Covered(Up) in Mayoral Mankini of Office

Ammanford's year as "Town of Culture 2018" is now well underway. I wondered what was meant when the "initiative" was announced. So far efforts have been mostly focused on celebrating the entertainment side of things. For some light relief I'd like to take a look at local governance, how Ammanford Town Council's culture of ineptitude and secrecy feeds into the pitiful state of local so-called democracy with a blatant disregard for accountability.

Ammanford Town Council was recently fined by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, upholding a complaint of maladministration. The anonymised Decision Letter is linked here. Mr X's complaint was hand delivered to the Town Hall, Iscennen Road on 21 December 2017, as follows:

"I write to make a formal complaint regarding the absence of published Minutes for Ammanford Town Council’s meetings, since August 2016.
 It has long been a requirement (Local Government Act 1972) for the Council to properly record and make Minutes available for inspection.  Since 1 May 2015 section 55 of the Local Government (Democracy) (Wales) Act 2013 has also required community and town councils to provide these in electronic format, along with the proceedings and (in so far as reasonably practical) any documents referenced in the Minutes (you may find guidance and press releases publicising this on the Welsh Government’s website).
 Please acknowledge receipt of this complaint and in the first instance provide a copy of your complaint resolution process (which should also be on your website). The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales has asked that I exhaust the Council’s formal complaints process before they will continue with their investigation into Ammanford Town Council’s performance."

The PSOW originally buffeted the issue when first reported in December 2017, claiming that Mr X hadn't followed Ammanford Town Council's complaint resolution process - a cyclic argument as Ammanford Town Council doesn't publish it's process. Following delivery of the written letter, the matter was put back to the PSOW for proper consideration. The PSOW failed to respond; further prompting led to a formal review and the PSOW ruled (without a right of appeal) that the complainant had to give 13 weeks for Ammanford Town Council to respond - the clock ticking from the letter through the door, rather than the matter first being raised with the Council (electronically) on 18 October 2017. A plucky case officer also took the initiative to call the Town Clerk, provide an electronic copy of the letter and inform Mr X of this positive action. Payment, details of the complaints process, and some highlights of the new Town Clerk's first year in post were provided, in a brown envelope, on 27 April 2018.

The PSOW action compounds that of the Information Commissioner's Office, who have ruled that Ammanford Town Council was/is in wilful breach of the Freedom Of Information Act (2000). The ICO has repeatedly spoken with the Town Clerk and directed the Council to release copies of the Minutes. Four ICO Decision Notices are pending release from the work-waiting queue. Enforcement action is imminent - once the file is allocated back to a case officer (96 days and counting, since confirmation on 8 February 2018). Some Minutes were published, but they are incomplete and "prove" the existence of other Minutes which have been missed in the relevant quarterly period. The full discourse is available publicly on the WhatDoTheyKnow platform at the following URLs:

   Request submitted 18/10/2017
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/aug_dec_2016_minutes_for_town_co
   Request submitted 01/11/2017
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/jan_mar_2017_minutes_for_town_co
   Request submitted 16/11/2017
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/apr_jun_2017_minutes_for_town_co
   Request submitted 30/11/2017 (and botched delivery in notes)
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/jul_oct_minutes_for_town_council

Seven months on, and Ammanford Town Council still has not complied with its FOI obligations, citing a revamp of their website and upcoming GDPR changes as just two of the things on the jobs list. The Council may wish to take heed of the ICO's view that "Businesses must understand they can't break one law to get ready for another", in the £13,000 fine issued to Honda - commentary and links to the Ruling here at The Register. 

For the Reader wondering what interest our glorious and illustrious Welsh Government has in the matter (might they want to uphold the Law we paid them to write?), don't get too excited. After a bit of war-dialling last week, an officer tasked with Town and Community Councils lamented that they have "such limited powers of enforcement". Her best suggestion was to try and publicise the matter. Another option floated was to speak to a Scrutiny officer at Carmarthenshire County Council - that was drowned by laughter in milliseconds. 

Here is the Welsh Government's Statutory Guidance "Access to Information on Community And Town Councils".

And how about these (2015) words of inspiration from then Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews?

“Some of the best Community and Town Councils are already meeting high standards of openness and transparency, and from now we will require all councils to meet the same standards.” 

The legislation itself is quite readable and unambiguous. A pity the legislation doesn't seem to have any teeth.

A Council must operate on the basis of collective responsibility and has to be accountable. Duties have to be discharged irrespective of personal circumstances. Ammanford Town Council has met and discussed important issues, such as asset transfer and Planning proposals - but who knows the outcomes or the interests involved? It has statutory duties and stewards considerable sums of public money. Minutes have been distributed electronically to Councillors, by both the interim Town Clerk and the current Town Clerk. Serving Councillors have considerable experience in public life, including the current Town Mayor who was a former leader of Dinefwr Borough Council, and was a member of the infamous indemnifying Labour/Independent Executive Board at Carmarthenshire County Council. Not so long ago he had the cheek to claim that pan-Wales local government reorganisation would reduce representation and accountability. According to the recently liberated complaints procedure, the buck stops with the Town Mayor, but the incumbent has been silent (until now?). The complaints protocol is linked here.

This sorry adventure down the rabbit hole begs the question: how inept is Ammanford Town Council? Or worse still, what are they hiding? And most worryingly, is this culture directly or overtly transferred into representation at Carmarthenshire County Council?

I do hope that the distasteful image of Town and County Councillor Colin "Got It Covered(Up)" Evans in his Mayoral Mankini of Office will be all the publicity needed to nudge things along. The Reader really doesn't want to see more.

[Picture brought to you courtesy of Doug Peters/EMPICS Entertainment, South Wales Guardian, Section 30A and Schedule 2 (2A) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the GIMP & the number 6. Sources here:
https://cdn.images.dailystar.co.uk/dynamic/33/photos/778000/620x/547b3bfade4f1_BORAT.jpg
http://www.southwalesguardian.co.uk/resources/images/7788223/?type=responsive-gallery-fullscreen
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2014/9780111116029
https://www.gimp.org]